The Haunted Mine

Countdown Annual 1973
A coal mine in England is said to be haunted. Davy (one of the miners) hears noises from some old blocked-off workings. The rest scoff at him. Davy goes off to look for the cause of the noise. On the surface, Foster and Murray in a Mobile rush past to investigate the 4th UFO landing reported that week, but like the others this UFO came down on a nearby moor and vanished. The Mobile goes onto the moor and finds no trace. As it goes back to the road, it falls through a thin cover of branches over an old mineshaft. Foster jumps out clear onto the edge of the hole, but Murray goes down with the Mobile. Foster climbs down the mineshaft, and finds that the Mobile is a total wreck and Murray is gone. He walks into the old workings and sees at least 3 UFO's in a passage. 3 miners go to look for Davy. Some timbers are loose, as if someone had opened the old workings. They go into the old workings and find Foster and jump on him as a suspicious intruder and suspect that he had harmed Davy. Foster tries to explain about the aliens and the UFO's and is not believed. Just then Dave comes back to them, with Murray leaning on him, and says that the 2 had been chased by men with green skin. The miners decide to flee. Then at least 4 armed aliens come, and seem to `have them cold', but Foster calls for an attempt to fight out of the trap, else the humans there would be shipped away in a UFO. (The aliens' helmets are the usual shape but completely transparent.) But the rest of the miners come with picks and shovels, thinking that the resulting noise from the old workings is a roof fall. They see what was happening and attack the aliens with their picks and shovels. One of the aliens breaks away. Foster wonders why, and chases him, and grabs the alien as he is about to operate a small control panel, guessing that it is a self-destruct. He calls the miners to leave the fight and run back to the new workings. They all get away, but the aliens do not follow them. The old workings blow up behind them. Davy has a motorcycle and sidecar: with it he takes Foster and some explosive to the top of the old shaft. Foster throws the explosive in just as the first of the UFO's gets near the top of the shaft as it tries to escape. The alien base and the UFO's explode, self-destructing rather than be captured.

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